How minimalism helped me make $8,000

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If you’d told me a few years ago that minimalism or simple living would lead to generating money, I would have laughed. A way of living, helping generate income? Sounds too good to be true. And right now, you are probably wondering how I’m going to spin this and if it’s actually as good as it sounds. Right?

Well, from one skeptic to another, I invite you to open your mind to new possibilities. Let go of preconceived ideas about how making money should look (which for most people looks like being employed) and let your imagination lead you.

Because I believe that when you let go of clutter (both physical and emotional) and embrace minimalism, there are many opportunities for your finances to benefit.

How could minimalism help you create extra income?

Making money was a bi-product

I never set out to use the concepts of minimalism to make money. My pathway to simple living was forged through many years of living in the land of busy and overwhelm. I choose to slow down and simplify and one of the consequences was an opportunity to make money.

It didn’t happen overnight

I spent a couple of years emptying my home of the things that I didn’t need anymore. Drawer by drawer. Box by box. That’s the only way I got there. There were many times that I wished the process would go faster but it just didn’t work that way. And going slower allowed me to apply an environmental mindfulness to the process.

As I decluttered and simplified, I gained freedom.

When I got to a certain level of ‘empty’, a few shelves here and there, a bare-bones closet, I began to dream of things I’d previously deemed impossible. For instance, a family sabbatical overseas seemed a little bit more doable. Less to pack, less to store, less work to prepare for.

Okay, okay, enough preamble, I’ll cut to the chase for you now.

Making the money

So how exactly did we make $8,000 as a by-product of choosing to live by the principles of minimalism?

We were able to rent our beautiful home over summer. We live in a beautiful part of New Zealand, with the best beach in the world only 7 minutes drive from our home. It’s a sought after location for New Zealanders and many foreign tourists. We’d heard of other people renting their houses out as holiday homes and knew that it could be a profitable venture.

But laden down with far too many possessions, I never seriously considered this as an option for making money. The preparation to get the house ready would have been absolutely enormous. And completely unattainable.

When I left my full-time job to set about restoring sanity and balance to our house, we knew that renting our house out would be a great option to help replace a bit of my income.

And by the time we’d decided to go ahead and advertise, I had a couple of years of decluttering under my belt. Sure there was still work to be done, but it wasn’t overwhelming. And having an external goal to hold me accountable helped to push through some of the harder decisions about what stayed or got donated.

I’ll be honest with you though. We do not look like minimalists. Our home does not have that scandi minimalist look. We still have stuff. We still have excess stuff. In fact I’m often embarrassed if anyone sees our garage. But it’s 100% better than it was 3 years ago.

Minimalism helped me make $8,000

How could minimalism help you create extra income?

Sell items

I sold a few things but donated most. I was already pretty time poor so I decided on the more efficient way to purge of items. But if you have some extra time, consider at least selling your bigger ticket items. But also, you might hold a garage sale or list your things on a local Facebook garage sale page. The excess items you no longer want could translate into hundreds of dollars if you want them to.

Buy less

Put yourself on a spending ban and save the money you might have spent. You might be surprised how much you spend each month on non-necessities (yes I’m talking takeaway coffee, makeup, homewares). Check out The Year of Less by Cait Flanders for more inspiration.

Do what we did

I highly recommend considering renting out your home for a period. It won’t be for everyone but you may not know until you try.

But also, if you aren’t quite there yet, you could consider using the extra time you have (by not having as much to clean, organize and maintain) to earn a little extra money on the side. Perhaps you have a creative pursuit that you might be able to earn some money from? Free up your time and this could become a profitable reality.

I get that many people do this, they rent their whole house or part of it, without identifying as a minimalist or a slow living advocate, but I’m giving this way of living full credit for being able to take this opportunity.

I’m so thankful that I’m on this journey to simplify and slow down. It’s not always easy but there are always hidden gems along the way!


If you want to start the decluttering process, I always recommend this course – And it just opened for enrolment!

Uncluttered is a 12-week long course created by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, and over 30,000 people have participated in the course over the last 3 years.

The course is broken up into four modules;

Module 1: Know your why’s

Module 2: Change your home

Module 3: Develop new habits

Module 4: Experiment with less

Each module contains a video or interview with a leader in the minimalist movement and a guide to the week’s challenge. It also includes 3 live webinars, where you can ask Joshua some of your more tricky questions.

And possibly the best part – you get access to a private Facebook group of other Uncluttered participants. Here you can get pretty constant access to motivation, tips, and inspiration from current and past participants.

If you are considering taking the course this year, I’m very pleased to be able to offer you a friends and family discount of a huge 25%! (just enter FF25 at the checkout).

If you want to find out more about Uncluttered before signing up visit the webpage. You can also email me at simpleslowlovely@gmail.com, or PM me on Facebook or Instagram.

P.S This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, which goes towards funding Simple Slow & Lovely. Thank you so much for your support!